Democracy is a participatory sport

Sunday

Feb 11, 2018 at 3:01 AM

John Tabor

On Thursday, the city held the second of two input sessions on the McIntyre building. In both, more than 150 people discussed the opportunities for this two-acre site, working in small groups with facilitators.

The sessions last week once again revealed the creativity and civic passion of Portsmouth residents. At the Thursday session I attended, residents envisioned strollable plazas, rooftop restaurants on the McIntyre, walkable ways into the site from neighboring streets, a park and preservation of Bow Street views.

City leaders have used small-group dialogues to gather well-reasoned input in Portsmouth for 20 years. Portsmouth Listens, a volunteer organization that is dedicated to being a “neutral convener” of dialogues, has led such dialogues on two master plans, the Portsmouth Middle School, housing, West End zoning and more. Jim Noucas and I believe these dialogues have led the city to conclude that it’s far easier to get lots of public input up front for big changes, rather than rely only on sparsely attended public hearings and face divisions as a community later in the process.

It was heartening that Portsmouth Listens was asked to assist with McIntyre, and the results were praised recently by Councilor Chris Dwyer in a letter to the Herald.

But who gives input? The McIntyre site – so crucial to the future of the downtown – forced us to ask who really is engaged, who is not and how can Portsmouth engage everyone in public input? Is there a risk we are hearing too much from an engaged minority, and not a broad cross section of residents?

Let’s start by looking at levels of engagement. The city has 21,485 residents, but only 18,127 voters. In last November’s city election, only 5,050 or 29 percent of those voted.

Who’s not engaged at election time or when major public input is needed? Nearly half – 48 percent — of housing is rentals. These include 2,000 units of public housing, and apartments chock full of recent college grads, singles, and couples starting out. Many renters will live here only a few years and move on. Young couples also both work and struggle to make time for community engagement. And there are those with physical limitations. The challenge is to incorporate these voices.

In truth, it takes a mix of input methods. Cities are experimenting with electronic methods – both dissemination and capture. Neighborhood-by-neighborhood dialogues in Recife, Brazil guided public infrastructure dollars to where neighborhoods needed it most. There are Swiss cantons of 41,000 who use direct democracy — citizen assemblies like the Greeks in Athens – for major decisions. As technology evolves, mixes of these forms could emerge.

But Portsmouth’s method of face-to-face dialogue, with each group sharing its conclusions and priorities directly with decision makers, still shines. It has a unique advantage of providing a safe space for citizens to reason together, create a marketplace of ideas and let the best ideas rise to the top. It’s a place where it’s OK to change your mind for the good of the group. The challenge is to be inclusive.

In planning the McIntyre dialogues, we particularly wanted to reach out to the city’s restaurant workers. A brilliant mind on the UnOfficial Portsmouth page noted the existence of a cocktail named McIntyre (brandy, Cointreau, Kina Lillet and lemon in equal parts if you are an amateur mixologist). Among the service worker crowd, Street has one of the liveliest “service worker nights” in town, and owner Michelle Lozuaway agreed to a McIntyre signature drink night with an information slip on the input session served alongside each frosty drink. Garnering public input has its pleasures, too.

In the end, some 100 people turned out Saturday, and another 40-50 Thursday. Portsmouth Listens is blessed with many experienced facilitators who contributed their skill and impartiality Saturday. And on Thursday it was heartening to see my group included a young mother with a newborn, a 20-something associate of developer Kim Rogers of Deer Street Associates (the new parking garage), a 20-something historic preservation expert, and a young Wibird Street resident. These new and younger faces contributed their know-how and enriched our dialogue.

Perhaps these younger residents will be heartened by a city that gave them an opportunity to hear their thoughts on a major change downtown. Perhaps that will lead one of them to serve on a city board or run for office. As my friend Jim Noucas says, democracy is a participatory sport. The more we can get to participate, the stronger our city is.

John Tabor is the recently retired President and Publisher of Seacoast Media Group and continues to serve on its editorial board.

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